CRB Group, Inc., the parent company of Cross River Bank, announced Thursday the appointment of financial veteran Evan Russo to its board of directors. Russo, the former CEO of Lazard Asset Management, will step into the pivotal role of Lead Independent Director as the Fort Lee-based firm accelerates its expansion into AI and digital assets.
The move signals a strengthening of corporate governance for the “bank-fintech” hybrid, which has become the backbone for over 120 major technology partners including the biggest names in the financial technology sector.
Russo brings a distinguished resume to the Cross River boardroom, spanning more than 20 years in investment banking, asset management, and law.
His leadership highlights include:
- Lazard Asset Management: Served as CEO from 2022 through late 2025.
- Lazard Ltd: Served as Chief Financial Officer (2017–2022) and Co-Head of Capital Markets.
- Wall Street Pedigree: Held senior roles at Goldman Sachs and Barclays Capital after beginning his career as a corporate attorney at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy.
- Academic Excellence: Holds an MBA from The Wharton School and a JD from Columbia Law School.
“Evan brings exactly the kind of strategic insight and institutional rigor that matches this moment,” Gilles Gade, founder, CEO, and chairman of Cross River said. “The convergence of AI, digital assets, and embedded finance is reshaping how the world moves money.”
Russo’s appointment follows a massive period of momentum for the New Jersey-based institution. In March 2026, Cross River announced a $50 million capital raise led by accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Investment Management.
This funding is specifically earmarked to fuel Cross River’s dominance in “embedded finance”—the technology that allows non-financial companies to offer banking services—as well as its proprietary stablecoin payments platform.
“Cross River has established itself as a pioneer… underpinned by an infrastructure platform that I believe is without parallel in financial services,” Russo said. “That combination of innovation, regulatory excellence, and scale is what drew me to this opportunity.”
Since its inception, Cross River has evolved from a local community bank into a global infrastructure giant. Its proprietary real-time banking core has produced staggering results:
- Total Loan Origination: Over $178 billion.
- Payment Transactions: More than 9.7 billion processed.
- Milestone: Surpassed one billion cumulative payment transactions in a single year (2025).
As Lead Independent Director, Russo will provide independent oversight and strategic counsel as the company navigates the increasingly complex regulatory landscape of crypto-assets and AI-driven lending. For the North Jersey tech corridor, the addition of a former Lazard CEO to a local fintech board further cements the region’s status as a serious rival to Silicon Valley in the financial innovation space.
